Dow Chemical has announced plans to expand capacity and enhance production technologies and equipment of its polyethylene production units in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, to support increased demand from producers of consumer and industrial films.

From 2015, the US chemical giant said it will invest an undisclosed sum in its four polyethylene production units at the Argentine site, where its subsidiary PBB Polisor operates two light feed crackers, an LDPE plant and two plants for HDPE and LLDPE, including a swing unit.

The new investments will enable production of more high performance resins for flexible and rigid packaging applications to meet growing demand in Latin America, Dow said. The LDPE solution plant will be revamped to enable production of resins for extrusion coating used in high-value markets such as food packaging and hygiene.

Dow said the HDPE slurry plant expansion will help drive growth of bimodal blow molding resins, which are currently in short supply in the region. The HDPE gas phase plant, which produces resins for geomembranes and pipes, will also be upgraded to improve operational performance.

With the upgrades in Latin America and new projects on the US Gulf Coast, Dow is "well on its way" to realizing the full financial benefit of these efforts to connect cost-advantaged raw materials to many of its highest-margin downstream businesses, said James Fitterling, vice chairman, business operations.

In Freeport, Texas, the on-purpose propylene PDH project remains on track for start-up in mid-2015, and a new world-sale ethane-based ethylene cracker on plan to start in the first half of 2017. Dow is also expanding its High Melt Index (HMI) polymer franchises in Freeport and its EPDM franchise in Plaquemine, Louisiana. Expansion of the LDPE facility is also on the agenda for Plaquemine.